Ist the Android Switch Really a Big Change?

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often"

- Sir Winston Churchill

On the surface, switching over from iPhone to Android feels like a major, life-altering experience. But is it really? Is it really much ado about nothing? Is this change like me moving to a village in rural China, or is it a change like ordering the Starbucks medium roast instead of the dark roast? Which is it?

Well, to ease my anxiety, I could resort to either (1) booze, or (2) listing the tasks I do regularly on my iPhone and see if they translate over to Android. I choose option #2 (for now).

I'm thinking back over the last 48 hours. Here, in order of time spent, are the tasks I've performed on iOS 4.

1. Cell phone activity - phone / text
2. Twitter
3. Web browsing
4. Bejewelled 2
5. Scrabble
6. YouTube

I can see right away, that there would be some sacrifice: #4 and #5 are not available on Android, at least, not in their polished iPhone form. There are Android versions, but they are yucky (to use highly technical terminology).

Let's now take a "glass is half full" approach and look at the gains. What would I get from, say, the Samsung Galaxy S, that I would not get from iPhone 4.

• 4 inch screen
• Apps from Google labs (and there are some real hum-dingers)
• Much lower price point for unlocked/no-contract device
• TV out connector (rumored, but not official yet)

But the iPhone 4 is too sweet to just write off. If these scenarios were to unfold, iPhone 4 would definitely be my next smartphone:

• No contract price is $779 (32 GB model), but if Rogers knocked that price down and allowed me to stay at my current 6 GB / month contract expiring in July 2011.
• Telus offered an iPhone 4 with two-year contract somewhere around $549 ish.
• iPhone is abundantly in stock on Apple's website (temptation might prove to be too great)
• Steve Jobs calls me personally, pleading with me to purchase one.
  

But, whatever, right? Either way, my current pokey iPhone 3G gets relegated to mere iPod status and I end up with a choice smartphone that should hold me for the next couple years.